


What Else Is Beautiful

by HapSky



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, Running, Slice of Life, Strangers to Lovers, canoeing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 13:23:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14955488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HapSky/pseuds/HapSky
Summary: Keith runs on the street next to the river while Shiro canoes on the river next to the street. Keith stumbles over his feet, Shiro gets swept away in the water, and they both fall for each other.





	What Else Is Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my two entries for the [Blessed and Possessed Zine](https://bapshirozine.tumblr.com/)! The other one is [Broken Into Shards](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14955207/chapters/34655439).
> 
> The zine itself sadly had to face several struggles, and didn't become what it intended to become, but hey! The good thing about it is, now you can [download it for free](https://bapshirozine.tumblr.com/post/174547337339/blessed-and-possessed-zine)!
> 
> This piece was inspired by a scenery near where I live. I hope you enjoy reading it!

It was a moment in summer when Keith noticed him the first time. He held himself with grace and confidence, even though there was no one around to see it. It's the kind of elegance that comes with a quiet moment of happiness, content to just be and breathe, to be just the way you are. He had his eyes closed, a pleased smile on his lips, the soft breeze tousling his black tuft of hair. It was just a moment, Keith jogged alongside the river and he glided over the water in his canoe—then a group of trees, a slope in the river, separated them and Keith lost sight of the man. This tiny fracture in time tough was enough to make Keith's heart jump in his ribcage.   
  
"You look happy," Shay told him when he came back home.   
"Do I? I think I look sweaty and gross, but okay..." Shiro countered and laughed.   
Shay laughed with him.   
  
It happened again the next week. Keith jogged his usual work out route, and as soon as the footpath paralleled the river, he catched a glimpse of the man in his canoe. This time though, the man noticed him as well and waved a friendly greeting. Keith waved back, and they resumed silently accompanying each other for as long as their different paths allowed them to.   
  
"Now you look like a fool," Shay smiled at Shiro.   
"A fool?" Shiro huffed and flopped down on their old couch. "Well, I just started canoeing. I may not be good yet, but I like it."   
Shay chuckled and ruffled his freshly washed hair. "I wasn't talking about the canoeing part, sweetheart."   
  
Keith hadn't paid much attention to when exactly it is he goes running—he had no schedule, neither regarding the time of the day nor regarding the day of the week. So it was purely coincidental, him running with that man on the river. Still, as coincidental as it may be, it became a given thing. Something he knew he could look forward to. Plans usually shatter, and usually Keith knows he'll be disappointed when he looks forward to something. Expectations are a horrible concept. But his encounters with that man are nothing like meeting up with someone—that man was there, like the trees and the river and the street and the sky always were there when he ran. They would meet—it just happened, just as it happened that he would eventually get out of breath, or that his muscles were working until a pleasant ache settled in his legs, or that his heart was beating faster. When Keith went running, he'd see him. Keith couldn't explain it, their strange synchrony. It was like the low whisper of the breeze rustling leaves mumbling in synchrony with the river's soft murmur.    
  
"How," Shiro asked with a mouthful of potato mush.   
"How?" Shay looked at him fondly, but also confused.   
"You're a gift from heaven, really," Shiro explained after he gulped down. "You always seem to know just when I feel like going to the river, and just what to cook for me afterwards." Shiro shook his head and stared at his plate full of delicious food with a frown. "I should pay you, hire you as a cook."   
Shay just laughed at that. "No need to offer money, my dear fellow broke student. I'm happy to do this. Besides, you're doing the dishes every time. I'd say we're even."   
"You're the best roommate ever," Shiro said with so much wonder and admiration in his voice, it made Shay blush.   
"Sometimes," Shay answered him with a quiet voice, "sometimes the world simply is on your side, Shiro."   
He knew, so he nodded. The man running with him always seemed to know just when he felt like going to the river as well.   
  
When summer was hot and heavy in his lungs, autumn was stormy and wild. He heard his companion laugh more often in autumn. The river was stormy and wild as well. And while Keith struggled to breathe evenly and to run at an even pace, the man had his troubles staying over the surface. Keith would stumble and fall sometimes, and sometimes the man would get thrown into the water. They both would get up again and again—they both would laugh in unison. When summer stretches incredibly long, autumn rushes by incredibly fast.   
  
"I told you you'd get sick, Shiro," Shay scolded him while he lay in bed and slurped some soup she had made him.   
"I know," he coughed and nodded, "I know."   
Shay stared at him for a while, then a smile graced her lips and she caressed his cheek. "He's that beautiful, isn't he," she said.   
Shiro looked at her, impressed but not surprised she had figured him out already. Maybe he had talked about that runner one time too often.   
Sadness covered Shiro's face, dulled his eyes and tinged his lips, his shoulders slumped down a bit. "I won't be able to go canoeing in winter..."   
Shay though, as wonderful as she is, laughed at that. "Sweetheart, you don't have to follow a river to see a man on the street!"   
  
It was once again a strange fracture in time, when Keith ran alone for the first time since summer. It wasn't autumn anymore, but it also wasn't winter yet. It was that one day of the year where the air smelled like frost and snow, but the birds chirped like in spring, and though the streets were wet from cold rain, the skin was warmed by a summer's sun. Keith ran alone, and never had he been running with a turmoil of dread and fear and loneliness in his chest. When Keith ran alone that day, on that strange day—nothing seemed quite real. Nothing seemed like it belonged where it was, as if the world was lost, and Keith's feet didn't really touch the ground. The man on the river was gone.   
  
It wasn't even close to christmas when Shiro got his present from Shay. Worn out shoes and some second hand clothes designed for running.

"So your man can keep an eye on you and stop you from drowning!" she said and Shiro blushed at those words.   
He also got some more soup. "Because Shiro... Are you sure you want to go out again? You still haven't completely recovered from your cold..." she had worried and Shiro just groaned, he was well enough, and he would go crazy if he had to stay in bed and do nothing for one more second.   
A note that said nothing more than a heart and a cloverleaf tugged between the running gear. "Be happy, Shiro," Shay had smiled at him, and Shiro had hugged her—and had hugged her a little bit closer. He wasn't only happy, he thought, he was also very, very lucky.   
  
Winter truly was beautiful. The white snow all tangled up in the trees' branches allowed the low sun to spread their shy, delicate glimmer over them. The calm even flow of the river's water gave the sun enough room to bath it in blinding golden rays. It was a warm light, not like the summer's light, warming the skin—the winter's light reached deeper, reached the soul and warmed the heart. The air was crisp and burned deep in Keith's lungs, and the sky was of a frosty clear blue. All the hazy summer's fog was gone from his view. He saw him from afar, shivering and pacing around near that very spot Keith had seen him the first time, in that one moment in summer. He wore short pants, some old running shoes and a tight shirt that didn't help against winter's cold at all. He glanced longingly at the river.   
  
When the other came to a halt in front of him, Shiro smiled sheepishly. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words didn't leave his lips. The other just smiled back and chuckled a laugh, and for Shiro, his smile even outshone the sun. He has never spoken to him, or stood ever this close to him before, but Shiro felt warm and golden inside. A quiet moment of happiness, of being content to just be and breathe.   
  
He could point out that he was wearing the wrong gear for running in winter, for proper running in general, or that he probably should stretch and warm up first, but Keith also could just smile and shake his head with a dopey grin. He slowly began walking again, and the other followed. Keith didn't run this time, he didn't have to keep up with the river's speed now. He could just idly jog along. They followed the river, and Keith wondered how it must be for the other, to see their surroundings from up here. Then he wondered how it would be to see the world from the river down below. He wondered if he'd start canoeing next summer, and smiled at the thought.   
  
Shiro had always turned around at a certain point, where it became difficult to follow the river on his canoe. However, he had always watched the other run ahead, and had always wondered where his path would lead him, where his turning point would be. He felt stupid now, so utterly stupid for having turned around so quickly. Had he waited a little bit longer, just until right after the sun had set, he would have seen him jogging on the other side of the river. His turning point was were their paths crossed—it was a huge dam.   
  
Keith had always wanted to show him the dam.

“Isn’t this beautiful?” Keith asks him and opens his arm to point at the world around them. Vast fields and meadows, a forest to their right and the city to their left. The river continuing on each side of where they are. Keith always manages to arrive at this special place in time to be swallowed by the sun’s last shine of the day, a last powerful explosion of warmth and light engulfing the world for a second—and he just cannot but laugh every time.

Shiro stares at him, and he feels so many things at once—happy, giddy, content, excited, calm and warm—and at the same time he cannot but hope that Shay won’t have his head for this later, it’s so cheesy and dumb. Oh whatever, he thinks, and just goes for it.

“You know what else is beautiful?”   


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Feel free to follow/unfollow me on [Tumblr](https://hapskyscribbles.tumblr.com/) and/or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/HapSkyScribbles)!


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